1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic original cover closer suitable for use in office equipment such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile machine, a scanner and so on, and office equipment including the automatic original cover closer.
2. Description of the Related Art
An original cover is reclosably mounted on the top surface of a main body of office equipment such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile machine, a scanner, and so on via an original cover closer. The original cover closer axially supports to be rotatable the original cover reclosably to cover a contact glass mounted on the top surface of the main body with the original cover, and can expose the top surface of the contact glass as well. When the office equipment is not in use, the original cover covers the contact glass which is the top surface of the main body. In this specification, this state is often expressed as a closed state of the original cover. When an original is set on the contact glass, the original cover is opened (shifted upward) to expose (open) the top surface of the contact glass. In this specification, this state is often expressed as an open state of the original cover. After setting the original on the surface of the exposed contact glass, by closing (shifting downward) the original cover to cause the original to come in intimate contact with the contact glass with the original cover, the original is set on the contact glass.
Thus, when the original cover is opened and closed, it is usually carried out manually. However, opening and closing of the original cover manually is sometimes difficult for the aged or a person on a wheel chair. In addition to that, in order to set an original held with both hands, it is sometimes required to dispose of the original once and set it after opening the original cover. Therefore, development of an automatic device to automatically open and close the original cover is demanded. Some of the automatic original cover closer of this kind have been already proposed. As a well-known document, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Sho 56-107268 can be cited. However, there is no automatic original cover closer which is now practically used including this well-known document. Though various reasons for this are conceivable, the main reason is that such an automatic original cover closer needs to have a structure such that it is able to open and close the original cover also manually with a low manufacturing cost, and a simple and compact structure that does not require much space to mount.